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As cities grow the amount of waste increases. In order to achieve a sustainable urban development it is necessary to make waste disposal accessible to households without access to a car. For this purpose, neighborhood recycling centers has been developed. Neighborhood recycling centers are intended to be integrated into the urban environment and thereby make waste management accessible for everyone, but they also intend to encourage social exchange by functioning as a meeting place.
This study is based on VA SYDs project Neighborhood recycling in Kroksbäck. The aim of the study is to identify what impact a neighborhood recycling center might have on the social dimensions of sustainability in Kroksbäck, and to create a project proposal describing how these effects can be implemented and evaluated in three stages during the pilot phase of the project.
We examine how work can be conducted to develop the social objectives of a neighborhood recycling center in Kroksbäck. For this purpose we have chosen to use social impact assessment to identify potential social effects the neighborhood recycling center might have. The social effects that we identify form the basis for the social objectives and indicators we phrase in our project proposal.
The results show that social impact assessments work well to identify the social effects of alterations in the physical environment. The social impact assessment has contributed to our success in identifying seven social effects as a possible outcome of the neighborhood recycling center in Kroksbäck: increased security, social equity, interplay integration, inclusion, accessibility, equality and perspective changes linked to sustainable development. Neighborhood recycling centers has also proved to be a good example of a project where social values pay a significant role in the outcomes of the ecological dimension of sustainability.
Since the social dimension of sustainability often seem to be sidelined when physical changes are implemented, we want to emphasize the importance of taking the social dimension into account throughout the planning process, seeing that physical changes can affect the social life on many levels and for a long period of time.